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Wednesday, 30 December 2015

A traditional final year post, taking stock of my
activity in the year about to end and describing my plans for the year coming.

First, how I did in 2015 compared to plans... well not
good at all, missing most of the marks looking at what I wrote at the end of
December 2014:

- The Jarama Campaign for the Spanish Civil War
never took place, actually it was not even discussed in the gaming group... I
wonder who's idea it was (not me for sure) and why it never took off.

- The El Cid Project for Crescent and The Cross,
was supposedly the star project of the year... never took off too... quite
bizarre as we (me included) painted models like mad during the first months of
the year but it just faded why. Honestly, I cannot remember why we did not
pursue the project (must ask my mates). Well ate least I won’t have to invest
time in painting Moors next year…

- First World War: the TooFatLardies Xmas
Special 2014with an adaptation for Chain of Command created some
excitement but was short lived

So as you see, nil out of 3. But was 2015 a terrible
year then? Not at all. On the contrary, gaming wise has been one of my most
active periods in years and I have to put marks, I would say 9 over 10.

Monday, 28 December 2015

The second game of the new Martlet campaign
for Chain of Command concluded with a new British victory, a most remarkable feat considering this was in
table where in the first attempt to play the campaign, we bogged down for four
games and could not break the German defensive scheme. Being honest, I did not well with the Germans,
deciding to withdraw in the heat of the moment… a quite stupid move as you’ll see.

In this second game the British must break
through the village of Fontenay, where the German outposts are located, before
crashing with the enemy’s main defensive line. This is a scenario Three of the
main rules (Attack-Defend); to win, one
side must force the other to withdraw or surrender due to fall in the Force
Moral level.

Sunday, 20 December 2015

Today we had an international visitor at the club: Will is a young 14-year old historical (!!!) wargamer from Virginia, with a deep afection for the Spanish Civil War. Showing a surprisingly mature personality for his youth, he's spending the Christmas holidays in Spain with his family, have already visited the Ciudad Universitaria and tomorrow the Jarama battlefields.

After contactting our club email, we invited him to play a Chain of Command with us this morning. As I know he follows this blog, I'd like to thank him for his visit and hope he has enjoyed the morning despite some lack of action in the two games played this morning. Obviously, the invitation to visit us is open to any you travelling to Madrid.

The fifth game of the Martlet campaign for Chain of Command was the straw that broke the (British) camel's
back. Already the patrol phase was far from auspicious to the British interests,
as the Germans got 5 (!) free moves that basically cornered our deployment area
to a narrow belt along the table edge, hindering our options.

Saturday, 19 December 2015

I will spend most of this
weekend priming my models for Curt's Analogue Hobbies challenge, which is merely
2 days away now. My plan is to paint a German Fallschirmjager platoon for Chain
of Command together with several supports (engineers, mortars, HMG, recoilless
ATG and a Hetzer), reinforcements for my German infantry units (the recently
released wonderful Warlord German in snow uniform are on their way home
as we speak...), some vehicles and a few French Napoleonic cavalry and
infantry.

This should be close to the
500 points that I decided to use as my challenge level.

What you see in the photo
is part of the work done so far stored with my French Dragoons (I have noticed
an alarmingly scarcity of storage space at home!!!). You may notice some models
already initiated: don't worry, I won't cheat and use them to my challenge
count; actually I put them on purpose in the photo... These are models I was painting when the
challenge was announced and are part of the units I'm using for the contest.

Also, some of the models
will "arrive" under the tree next 24th December and for obvious
reasons can't even start the priming phase yet. The Xmas holidays will be
useful to catch up.

So brushes, paints and
models on the table ... on my marks, ready... BANG

Thursday, 17 December 2015

The fourth game of the Martlet Campaign for Chain of Command resulted into another defeat of the British forces, the third in a row. After a very promising start, the truth is that the offensive bogged down and is becoming crucial to break the deadlock if we want to have a minimum chance to win the campaign.

After the disaster of the previous
game, we introduced a couple of changes: first, we decided to take the
initiative despite being on the defensive, and not wait for the Germans to
deploy their units; and second, we
reinforced the artillery component of our force by adding a Churchill AVRE with
its powerful petard mortar gun. This was necessary as the Germans had already fortified
three buildings and converted into mini-fortress.

Thursday, 10 December 2015

A quick alert to those interested in dark but interesting war theaters pre-Second World War. Jim Hale and Rolf Grein, the same guys that two years ago produced the excellent supplements for the Spanish Civil War, will be realising a new supplement and lists for the wars in Abyssinia in 1935.

The first article of the series was publshed on December 2 in the official blog of TooFatLardies, introducing the period and providing some special rules to play it with Chain of Command. Since then, a number of army lists have been released almost daily, that you will find in the same site.

As I already have an Italian Army for the North African desert, it may a good opportunity to confront against some (unlike the British) exotic foes... should I convince one of may gaming buddies to jump into this wagon.

Tuesday, 8 December 2015

We continue with the Martlet campaign as it
was a national holiday in Spain; you may remember we decided to pull out in the
second game after losing a significant number of units in the mist. In the
third game the mist lifted so no more hassle, but the initiative was now German
and they declared a counter-attack.

The truth is that at least on paper
this was an option that may favour the British, being an opportunity to force the
attrition of the German units. The truth is that the game´s outcome was totally
the opposite: the British had to give ground again when the Force Moral fell to
a dangerous level of 4.

Saturday, 21 November 2015

You know Christmas is just
around the corner when... Curt launches its Annual
Painting Challenge. This is now in its sixth edition and has developed as
one of the most remarkable social media event of our hobby.

The challenge gathers
wargamer aficionados from all over the world. The contest includes duels
between participants and special thematic bonus rounds where you can let your
imagination fly to create a vignette representing the theme. All details can be
found in Curt's blog.

After many years watching
the fun from the sideline, this year I'll take up the challenge and will
participate for the first time. I'm aiming to a modest target of 500 points
considering how unpredictable my hobby time can be and also how sloooooow
painter I am (as my gaming buddies can attest).

My focus will be 28mm of
course. I have a couple of IIWW projects to use (an early war German Army and a
late war Fallschirmjager platoon, both with supports) as well as completing my
Napoleonic project with some French infantry and additional cavalry units. I
see this as a good sting to plan and put a spin to my painting and gaming plans
for 2016.

A final comment on blog
administration: I'm leaving tomorrow Sunday on a 10 day business trip to Latin
America, returning early December. Don't expect to see much activity here until
then. My next post will be the third part of the Crisis trip, the visit to
Arnhem and will be followed by a special entry on the not quite known but
really remarkable tank museum of Overloon, also in The Netherlands.

Monday, 16 November 2015

This
is the second instalment of our trip to Crisis 2015, covering the visit to the
Battlefield of Waterloo. I must add that personally, the most emotive milestone
of the whole trip, suffering one of those “Stendhal Moments” on arriving to the
“Butte de Lion” feet, when I could hardly contain my tears... how many of us in
the wargame hobby had played countless hours (with my younger brother in my
case) in the early 70s with the Airfix farm and the boxes of British, French
and Prussian soldiers???

A
visit to the real Waterloo one day in the future was one of my earliest dreams,
but it has taken 53 years to become true... I’m sure you understand the feeling

Sunday, 15 November 2015

Today we have started a new campaign for Chain of Command using Operation Martlet, the latest pint-sized booklet published by TooFatLardies a few weeks ago. Martlet was the prequel to operation Epsom in Normandy and put the players in command of the element of both the 49th Division and the 12th SS Hitlerjunged Division.

We had the opportunity to
play 2 games, the first an outright victory for the British and the second for
the Germans when the British decided to retreat. A main historical issue in
this campaign was the effect of the morning fog in the deployment of the
British units, which is treated by the campaign and had a clear impact in our
performance.

Game 1The first game corresponds
to a scenario 2 "The probe" of the main rulebook. To achieve victory,
the British must exit at least one unit through the German tactical edge. The
power of the patrol phase to win a game was demonstrated today, when we won the
game in two activations thanks to our performance in the pregame phase.

Thursday, 12 November 2015

As regular readers of the blog know, a group of
members of Club Dragón planned several months ago to attend Crisis in Antwerp, one
of the most recommended wargames events in Continental Europe. As the dates
also coincided with a long week-end in Madrid, we extended the trip to 5 days
in total, intending to visit some of the famous battlefields around: Waterloo,
Arnhem and Bastogne/Ardennes.

Crisis is organised by a local wargames club (The TinSoldiers of Antwerp) and 2015 marked the 20th anniversary of this
event. The theme of the show this year was... Waterloo!! (surprise, surprise)

The show occupied two quite large former store
buildings in Antwerp harbour, and despite the large crowd of wargamers and
traders attending, there was enough space to walk around... nothing like the oppressive
atmosphere I felt in 2012 in London’s Salute.

We arrived just 15 minutes before the official opening
and a large and long queue was already forming. I was having nightmares
remembering how long it took me to enter Salute, but to my surprise it was
quite efficiently managed and by 10.10 we were inside (kuddos to the organisers!!)

Almost all usual suspects in the hobby were present
there (nothing to envy to Salute in that respect) and it was also a good
opportunity to meet some less well know manufacturers that offer good quality niche
products at competitive prices too.

Wednesday, 11 November 2015

Long hiatus in the blog, but more than justified as I have been out travelling around Belgium and Holland after attending Crisis 2015 in antwerp. Just landed last night and obviously have lack the time to start organising even my thoughts, not say the photos (over 700 taken...)

I plan to write several posts on Crisis, each of the battlefield visits (Waterloo, Arnhem, Ardennes/Bastogne) and about the Military Museum in Brussels.

Sunday, 1 November 2015

I could
not make to the club today but have been in an email exchange and being
sent several photos from the Pacific Theatre game played this morning. It was a
test game of "Ramps Down!" the seaborne invasion supplement for the
incoming Second World War close combat skirmish rules "Rattenkrieg" written
by my friend and owner of Barrage Miniatures, Alf Comps jointly with (my also
friend) Alejandro Lozano.

These set
of rules have been in an extended testing phase since early this year; but
according to my proprietary sources :-) they will be released before Christmas.
You can download an excerpt of the rules here.

Although
the focus of Rattenkrieg is urban close combat fighting with infantry and
armoured support, the game this morning was aiming to test the core mechanism
using a larger amount of troops and in a sea-landing environment. The
first results look promising, although some tweaks will be needed as well as
incorporating other extended support options.

This final game was an “Attack on an objective”
scenario of the main book, and the British had to take the crossroads in the
east side of the map. The map shown only two ways to approach the crossroads: north of the road, totally open flat terrain,
likely to be a suicidal attack; south of the road, hopping from house to house until
reaching the line of German defense… guess what route the British players chose.

Sunday, 18 October 2015

Operation Martlet was published this week, a new 28 pages campaign supplement for Chain of Command in the "Pint-Size" campaign series. This operation is the prequel to the better known Operation Epsom in Normandy (June 1944) and involved the British 49th Infantry Division and elements of the German Hitlerjugend Division. The supplement will last between 6 and 11 games and contains the maps, army lists and support necessary to play.

As usual, the booklet includes lots of interesting historical stuff to put in context your games. The unrivalled cost (GBP3.6) is the cost of a pint of beer in the pub frequently visited by Richard Clarke in his home town St Albans... a shame he does not live in Spain, where beer is significantly cheaper.

Monday, 12 October 2015

The game of the “5th Platoon” Arnhem
Campaign for Chain of Command published in Issue 74 of Wargames, Soldiers and
Strategy played this morning, concluded in a third straight defeat of the
German forces. With only one more game to go and the moral rating of the Germans
at worrisome low levels, I believe it will be difficult not to say impossible, to
stopping the British in the final scenario.

The German players decided to use
his first wild-car option and to launch a counterattack. This wild-car allows
the Germans to roll "2d6+6" support points only for one scenario which together with
the difference in rating between the German regular and the British paras
elite, provided a good bag of additional forces.

As we were playing “Big CoC” in this
campaign, we ended up with 40+ points, enabling to buy 4 infantry sections, 2 Jagdpanzers
IV and a couple of 250/10 armoured vehicles (armed with a an MG and a 20mm
gun).

Plenty of useful stuff but being
regular not too many command dice to manage as effectively as one could wish
all these forces; with the moral levels already low from the previous games,
the risk of falling into the red area where you start losing additional command
dice and jump-off points was already high... as it finally happened.

Sunday, 11 October 2015

This is the second game of “5th
Platoon”, the Arnhem campaign for Chain of Command published in issue
73 of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine. The first
game was won by the British paratroopers, who continue moving now along the
road towards the bridge at the center of the city.

In this scenario a key role is to be
played by Major General
Kussin, who historically was ambushed and killed when his staff car
literally crashed into some British units moving along the road. In this
scenario, when the officer’s car emerged from the secondary road in the North,
the mission of the German units changes to save the life’s general. As you’ll
read later in the report, this action had a major effect in the battle and the
demise of the Germans.

The scenario victory conditions were
for the British to put at least a unit on the German’s tactical edge by the end
of a turn, indicating that they had broken the enemy’s defensive line and
therefore the forces could keep on moving towards the bridge.

Monday, 5 October 2015

Just a month away from Crisis, arguably the most important wargaming show in Continental Europe. We planned to attend this year and meet again Richard Clarke from TooFatLardies. Unfortunately, Richard is going through a personal ordeal and will be unable to attend in person.

However, there's a significant number of international "Lardistas" attending and we are trying to coordinate a rendez-vous to meet in person and not only through the social media. Murphy's Heroes a Dutch club from Delft is putting a Chain of Command game and they have been kind enough to offer their table as a rallying point, provisionally at noon. The table is located in grid g3b4 of the hall. You can find maps and ither useful information on the event here.

From Madrid we are travelling seven members of the Club Dragón and we'll be happy to meet youy out there.

Incidentally, Crisis will not be our only destination. We have planned a nice battlefield tour, arriving on friday to visit Waterloo, making Hell's Highway and Arnhem on Sunday/Monday and moving into Bastogne on Monday/Tuesday before returning home late that night... we only pray now for the weather to be just right.

About Anibal Invictus

A fairly experienced Spanish wargamer, based in Madrid. Together with a group of friends founder of "Club Dragón" in the early 80s. A truly TooFatLardies gruppie since a first love encounter in 2008, I regularly play the Napoleonic, WWI, WWII and Vietnam periods.